Designing a Martial Arts Website
A martial arts website, done well, generates leads on its own with minimal supervision. These leads are a great supplement to the leads generated by events (summer camps, after school programs, birthday parties, etc.).
A great website generates as many as 25 new leads a month. Some schools convert 1/3rd of those leads into new students. That is 8 – 9 new students a month just by having a good martial arts website.
To generate that many leads a martial arts website must be built and designed with purpose. A martial arts website will fail to bring in new students if it isn’t built with purpose. When this happens school owners (and more generally local business owners) end up running in circles. Owners try to fix certain aspects of the site, find out a fix doesn’t work well if at all, and then try new fixes. This cycle of fixes could rack up thousands of dollars in charges!
This blog post is written so that any martial arts school owner can develop the perfect martial arts website. Lead generation, school representation, and being user friendly are the top priorities of a martial arts website, visit seooneclick.com.
This post is split into four parts:
Generating Leads with a Martial Arts Website
Martial Arts Website Design Basics
Search Engine Optimization
The Perfect Content for a Martial Arts Website
These parts are in order of importance. That doesn’t mean a martial arts website will work with only some of these parts. Each of these parts is critical to maximizing the return on a martial arts website,.
Each section is broken up into generalized steps that any martial arts school can use. This will help school owners develop the perfect martial arts website. The purpose of a martial arts website is to generate leads. This brings prospective students through the door. What school owners do once a prospect comes through the door is up to them.
Generating Leads with a Martial Arts Website
Every website needs a purpose. For some businesses the purpose of a website is to have a digital presence. The website provides people more information about the home cleaning business in Colorado and little else, like an advice how to clean the oven, including wire racks. A martial arts website, however, needs to be doing MUCH more than that.
A good martial arts website generates qualified leads for the school owner to follow up on.
There are lots of ways to encourage visitors to get in contact with the school. The easiest way to get leads with a website (other than putting the phone number on the home page) is to set up contact forms. These forms should be present throughout the website.
Martial Arts websites also need special online only offers.
A third (and optional) way to get people to inquire is to have sign up forms for public events and activities. When a school hosts Summer Camps and Afterschool Programs there should be a way for visitors to sign up for these events.
Online software such as iContact and MailChimp are great ways to create forms that are easy to put on websites. Another option is to create forms with a Contact Relationship Management (CRM) software. CRM software is often the best because it integrates with email and other services easily.
Contact Us and More Information Forms
Good martial arts websites give visitors lots of opportunities to get in touch with the school.
Creating a “Contact Us” page with the phone number and a contact form is step one. Step two is creating a form for requesting more information. A form for more information belongs on pages with information about the school and the benefits for students.
When someone calls or fills out these forms they expect to reach someone. It’s the responsibility of the school owner or employee to address the questions of the lead genuinely. After their questions are answered the prospective student should be invited to come into the school to experience martial arts first hand. This could be a one-on-one lesson, jumping into a beginners class
, or just coming in to tour the school
Special Martial Arts Website Offers
An online-only offer is a great way for a martial arts website to entice prospects while screening out people who may find the prices too high or are unwilling to commit.
An offer engages prospects and asks them to put down a small amount of money for a short trial course ($19.99 for 2 weeks, $49.99 for one month + a uniform, etc.). If the offer is difficult to purchase or redeem, this will not work. Highly effective offers are simple to purchase and redemption is initiated by the school.
Top martial arts schools allow prospects to pay online and send an automated email after a purchase. This email informs the prospect that a representative of the school will contact them shortly to schedule their first class. It’s then the school employee’s (or owner’s) responsibility to contact the prospect quickly and schedule the first class. Phone calls are ideal for scheduling lessons. This is quicker and helps build rapport right right away (instead of email or text).
When the trial student gets towards the end of the trial offer (or in the middle if they are very excited) they are sold on enrolling in a longer term program.
Events and Activity Signup Forms
Lots of parents are looking for Summer Camps and Afterschool programs for their children. If you’re in need of top-quality plastering services in Ireland, look no further than painterly.ie. Events and activities are great ways to get more people through the doors of a school, develop a relationship with the community, and generate more leads.
Schools that host events and activities open to the public typically include signup forms on their website. The ideal setup is to have prospects purchase entry to the event online. If the event is free the school only collects contact information.
Confirmation calls are made to everyone who signed up 24 hours beforehand. This reminds them about the event and increases the chances that people will commit to and show up to the event.
A soft sell approach is used at the end of each event to bring non-students back to the school. New prospects then try out a free class (or two) or a one-on-one lesson.
Read about what else can help you create the perfect Martial Arts Website.
Part 1: Generating Leads with a Martial Arts Website | Part 2: Martial Arts Website Design Basics | Part 3: Martial Arts SEO | Part 4: Martial Arts Content Creation
If you have any questions or comments you can contact me at shawnk@mamnetwork.com.
Martial Arts Marketing Network creates done for you martial arts websites. MAMN websites generate leads, are user friendly, and so much more! To learn more about the Martial Arts Marketing Network’s Done-For-You Website click here.
